The technical sector of the present invention is that of screen-wash liquid supply and/or distribution systems for motor vehicles. Such a system accompanies a vehicle window wiping installation. More particularly, the invention targets a device for transporting and heating the liquid, otherwise called electrical and hydraulic coupling device for a liquid conveyed between a tank and a spraying system.
Automobiles are routinely equipped with wiping installations and washing systems to handle the wiping and washing of the windscreen, and thus prevent the driver's view of his or her environment from being disrupted. These wiping installations comprise arms describing an angular reciprocal movement at the end of which are installed elongate brushes, themselves bearing scraper blades made of an elastic material. These blades rub against the windscreen and dispel the water by bringing it outside the field of vision of the driver. The brush is attached to the rotating arm of the windscreen wiper by an assembly consisting of a mechanical connector and an adapter. The connector is a part which is fixed directly onto the structure of the brush, the adapter being an intermediate part which makes it possible to fix the connector, and therefore the brush, onto the arm of the windscreen wiper. These two parts are linked to one another by a transversal axis which allows their relative rotation.
The washing systems comprise a device for feeding a screen-wash liquid which is routed from a tank located in the vehicle and which is sprayed towards the windscreen by nozzles generally located on the bonnet, on the windscreen bay grating or on the windscreen wiper itself for a better distribution of the liquid. In the case of nozzles placed on the brushes, the screen-wash liquid is routed, before being distributed between them, by pipelines which are fixed to the arm of the windscreen wiper and which are coupled to a distribution system for the brush at the level of the connector. The connector thus comprises orifices suitable for receiving, via a seal-type link, the end pieces of said pipelines.
When the temperature of the screen-wash liquid is too low, for example below 5° C., the screen-wash liquid is heated. For this, a transport duct reheats the screen-wash liquid taken from the tank by a pump at the moment when the screen-wash control is actuated, generally by the control lever placed alongside the steering wheel and controlling, among other things, the actuation of the windscreen wipers.
The heating of the liquid in the transport duct is ensured by a heating element which runs next to the duct. It is known practice to heat the wiping brush so as to prevent the latter from being seized by freezing. Such heating is implemented by a heating device mounted on the scraper blade, in the length of the wiping brush. This heating device is electrically activated and it is then necessary to run electrical power supply cables from the vehicle to the wiping brush.
In the known prior art, these power supply cables run along the liquid transport duct and are secured thereto by taped areas.
This solution according to the prior art is unsatisfactory, particularly for high-end vehicles, because it is not in line with the level of appearance expected for this type of vehicle. In practice, a vehicle user cannot accept seeing cables run in a disordered manner along a screen-wash supply tube of the wiping brush. A link by adhesive tapes between the cables and the tube is also not acceptable, for the same reasons. The latter solution also implies a complication of the assembly method which, in addition to the intrinsic cost of these adhesive tapes, increases the cost price of such a method.
The prior art solution presents a second drawback. The assembly formed by the cables and the screen-wash supply tube has a significant bulk which hampers its installation. In practice, this assembly has to run in a groove of standardized size at the level of a driver of the wiping arm, then run under the arm to the windscreen wiper. The volume available in these areas is extremely restricted and does not make it possible to house the assembly formed by the cables and the supply tube.
The aim of the present invention is therefore to resolve the drawbacks described above primarily by shrewdly combining the screen-wash supply tube and the electric cable or cables powering the heating device present on the wiping brush.